by Jennifer Sartell Photos by author. This is a delicious Sunday dinner that fills the home with the mouthwatering smells of garlic, rosemary and onion. A hearty chicken dish with rustic root vegetables that caramelize and meld, to flavor each other and the roasted chicken. Any of the vegetables can be eliminated or changed. I […]

by Don Schrider, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy — Illustration by Georges Louis LeClerc Buffon On Feb. 25, 2008, about 70 people congregated at Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, Va., to take part in a blind taste test comparing one variety of industrial turkey and eight varieties of heritage turkey. All the food professionals, chefs, food connoisseurs […]

  by Rachel Hurd Anger   Today, our hens are 19 weeks old, nearly old enough to begin laying. Waiting for the first egg is starting to resemble the end of pregnancy when all is go, and everyone calls daily to see if mama’s in labor.   Essentially, we are waiting for an event that […]

by Jennifer Burcke I’ve officially crossed over to crazy chicken lady status. How do I know? Easy. I found myself standing at the stove this morning chopping apples and cooking oatmeal for the seven chickens who live at 1840 Farm. What has become of me? It’s been dreadfully cold here in the past week. So […]

Guest post by Pam Baker If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, some of our writers haven’t gotten eggs from their hens. Let me just say, that kind of anticipation is painful. It’s like waiting for Christmas, but you don’t know which day it is. At our place, we have been fortunate and I […]

My Rooster Stew by Meredith Chilson In the spring, I always seem to have some little chicks around. Some of those little chicks turn into “my girls”—the hens that I nurture and keep for eggs. The others—well, I keep them for a while, too. Those are the ones that grow the magnificent tail feathers and […]

by Jennifer Sartell Let me start by saying, we don’t live in a farming community. Our neighbors don’t have chickens. Our neighbor’s neighbors don’t have chickens. You don’t often hear the sound of a rooster crowing miles away. There are no roosters. We’re the odd ones. So forgive me if I sound as though I’m […]